Special thanks to Monrovia Plants for sponsoring this discussion on edible landscaping.
Gardening is such a hot and trendy topic everywhere you look. People are growing their own food, even in the tiniest of places and spaces. I happen to be among these apartment dwelling gardeners. One of the keys to making your garden work in a small space is by using plants that do double duty, or can grow together. We’re gonna focus on those double duty darlings – edible landscaping. They look good and are useful, too. All of the plants we’re featuring can be found at Monrovia.
Edible Landscaping Plants
Rosemary
Rosemary is easy to grow, and quite hardy, making it ideal edible landscaping. It will create a beautiful and fragrant hedge with just a little TLC. Not looking for a hedge of it? Grow rosemary in pots and line a walkway or your garden border with these pots. It will look and smell delightful. One caveat – rosemary does tend to attract bees, so be careful of that. Choose a rosemary variety based on your personal aesthetic. Arp rosemary has beautiful blooms, while Blue Spires rosemary has that gorgeous blue hue to it.
Flowering Quince
If you’re looking for edible landscaping that has some serious eye appeal, try a flowering quince tree. Their gorgeous blooms will really add a little sumtin sumtin to your garden. Plus, they’ll bear exotic fruit that will kick your cooking up a notch. The Cameo Japanese Flowering Quince, Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince, and Toyo Nishiki Flowering Quince all have really pretty, and really different, blooms.
Banana Tree
When I was 7 or so, we moved. Our new house had a banana tree in the front yard. Since I had never seen a banana tree, I was fascinated. The first time it produced fruit, I was a little freaked out! I had no idea bananas came from trees.
A garden cannot live by flowers alone. You need some greenery to really balance everything else out, and provide some grounding. A banana tree can really provide this. And since it’s leaves are quite lush and dense, it provides quite a different texture to your garden. There are great smaller versions, and even a full sized banana tree doesn’t take up that much space.
A Citrus Tree
If you have the room, a citrus tree is beautiful in your garden. The leaves are stunning, the shape is nice, and the blossoms smell sooooo good. You may even be lucky enough to get a harvest of limes, lemons, or grapefruit. Personally, I’ve always had the best luck with growing grapefruit, but since I don’t care for the fruit, it’s a bit of a waste of edible landscaping. I have found, though, that you can always pawn fresh, homegrown grapefruit off on others. You can even grow dwarf citrus in a pot.
Berries
It used to be that if you wanted to grow berries, you had to have a trellis and somewhere for them to climb. Not any longer. Now, there are several varieties of bush berries that are gorgeous edible landscaping. The dense green leaves studded with the vibrant berries really adds to your edible landscaping, visually. Try varieties like Brazelberries® Raspberry Shortcake™ Dwarf Thornless Raspberry or their Peach Sorbet™ blueberry. Burgundy Wild Lowbush Blueberry is a great choice for edible landscaping as well, since the foliage changes with the seasons.
There are many other plants that make great edible landscaping, too. Potatoes look very pretty when they’re growing, and the potatoes themselves are under the dirt, so no one has to know. Or, go outside of the box and use actual veggie plants for your edible landscaping. The possibilities really are endless.
All of these edible landscaping plants are available from Monrovia. Check out their website, and look for them at your local nurseries and garden centers.